MIUI: Xiaomi builds its success on a solid platform

June 17, 2014 Leave a comment

MIUI: Xiaomi builds its success on a solid platform

Staff Reporter

2014-06-12

When Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi launched its Mi Pad tablet on May 15, the tablet version of its MIUI user interface prompted talk that it could present a viable alternative to Android, according to the Chinese-language magazine Business Value.

The number of global MIUI users has now exceeded 50 million and the user interface has been dubbed by fans the “soul of Xiaomi.” Market observers say MIUI possesses the same core competitiveness that Xiaomi has on its phones. Developed based on the Android ROM and released before the first generation of Xiaomi phones, MIUI has played a critical role in Xiaomi’s remarkable success as it has attracted the earliest seeded users for the company.

A team of over 400 members is responsible for the interface’s development and maintenance.

Although Xiaomi is still not comparable with Apple, its MIUI has demonstrated its potential to compete with the American tech giant. Based on MIUI, Xiaomi has built its own app store, theme store, games center, browser, video center and cloud service. The theme store alone earns millions of yuan a month for Xiaomi.

In addition, Xiaomi has rolled out its virtual currency that can be used to add value to games, or for buying digital books. But the gaming business has contributed the largest revenue.

In February, Xiaomi announced the establishment of a subsidiary that will integrate several business areas, including a games and video center and MiTalk Messenger, which Hong Feng, Xiaomi co-founder and head of the MIUI business, said is aimed at accelerating development in the sector.

There are other minor but important services provided by MIUI, such as helping filter unknown numbers while making phone calls.

In April, Xiaomi released the Xiaomi System, a product that is a hybrid of MIUI ROM and the Xiaomi desktop app.

Hong claims that 6 million people used MIUI, indicating that the Xiaomi System has a potential user base of 100 million.

 

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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